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English
Etymology
From servile + -ly.
Pronunciation
Adverb
servilely (comparative more servilely, superlative most servilely)
- In a servile way; fawningly.
1808, Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind, pages 315–6:In the works of nature we find, in many instances, beauty and sublimity involved among circumstances, which are either indifferent, or which obstruct the general effect: and it is only by a train of experiments, that we can separate those circumstances from the rest... Accordingly, the inexperienced artist, when he copies nature, will copy her servilely... and the beauties of his performances will be encumbered with a number of superfluous or disagreeable concomitants. Experience and observation alone can enable him to make this determination: to exhibit the principles of beauty pure and unadulterated, and to form a creation of his own, more faultless, than ever fell under the observation of his senses.
1884–1928, “Accurse, v.”, in James A H Murray , editors, A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume I, London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 70, column 2:As a-curse is not found before the 12th c., the prefix does not here represent an older ar- or an-, but is imitated from the a- into which both of these had then sunk, and was apparently intensive, as in wake, a-wake, rise, a-rise. In 5, when the scribes latinized the Fr prefix a- before c to ac-, they servilely did the same with a-curse, whence the false spelling ac-curse.
1988, Bapsi Sidhwa, Ice-Candy Man, Daunt Books (2016), page 203:She looks at Mother out of appealing eyes. Docile. Ready to please. So in need. Servilely murmuring: ‘Yes, jee, I will do everything … Anything you want.’
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